Hayao Miyazaki ditches retirement to direct a feature film

In the year that Princess Mononoke celebrates its 20th anniversary, more news arrives to confirm a feature-length movie from the Studio Ghibli founder

Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki is reportedly making a new feature film. The legendary director behind classics like Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro and Princess Mononoke announced his official retirement in 2013. Rumours about the project first cropped up in 2015, years after Miyazaki bowed out after his final release, The Wind Rises.

According to Kotaku, Toshio Suzuki, a producer from the Japanese animating house Ghibli, related the news that further confirmed Miyazaki’s exit from retirement at a pre-Oscars interview for Ghibli co-produced The Red Turtle. A journalist from the Kyodo agency was one of the main sources:

BREAKING: Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki confirms that Hayao Miyazaki is currently working on his next feature length film

Miyazaki is in Tokyo “putting all his effort into making it”, reports say. It was reportedly constructed from a storyboard drawn in 20 minutes, and the film is meant to be released before the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

In 2015, news arrived that Miyazaki was working on Boro the Caterpillar, a short film intended to be played at Tokyo’s Ghibli Museum. He’s been teaching himself CGI animation for the upcoming visuals. A television special saw Miyazaki talk about plans to make Boro, a story about a caterpillar, into a feature-length film. Suzuki seems to confirm this – or, it could be a totally new project.

Read here why the iconic, emotionally-charged Studio Ghibli will live on forever.